Tommy Soutar
In the short story African Assignment, Tommy Soutar was the sixteen year old son of Angus Soutar was an itinerant trader who worked under a government licence in East Africa. After being educated in England, he joined his father on his first trading trip which commenced some six months before the events narrated in the story. Tommy and his father trekked through the otulying districts in an ox wagon, bartering goods with the natives in the villages. On one visit to the Ubeni reserve, they met with an unfriendly reception, which was unusual. The natives were drunk, with empty gin bottles much in evidence. Other natives had bedecked themsleves with empty sardine tins and jam jars as ornaments. Angus concluded that a white man had given them these things in return for services rendered. Perceiving that the atmosphere was tense and unsafe, Tommy's father decided to move on and set up camp some ten miles away. Later that evening, a native visited Tommy's father Angus and offered something in a blue tin. In exchange, Angus gave him a large amount of tobacco. Tommy noticed that Angus looked worried. Telling Tommy that there was "dirty work" going on at Ubeni and that he wanted to get to the bottom of it, he departed for the village. His last instruction to Tommy was that if he did not return, Tommy was to go to the District Officer to report. As things turned out, Angus did not return. In the morning, Tommy went in search of his father and came across the body of the native who had offered the blue box speared to death. Supposing that his father was also dead, Tommy drove off in the ox wagon hoping to find help. Further trouble was to follow when his oxen were attacked and killed by lions. Tommy had no other choice but to load up with supplies and set off on foot. After a difficult journey of a fortnight, he was found, near starvation, by a party of friendly natives. Tommy was taken to Juba where he made his report. When Biggles was sent with Ginger to investigate the strange goings-on at Ubeni, he first met up with Tommy at Juba. He found Tommy to be an observant and resilient individual. He was not only willing to accompany Biggles on his investigations at Ubeni, but he remembered critical details. On his journey out from Ubeni, he had noticed an aeroplane flying north. This had led Biggles to suspect the Steiners, German film making couple who were known to operate an amphibian aircraft. Later, Tommy was able to positively identify a still from a recent movie made by the Steiners as coming from the region of Lake Kulu, the lake in the centre of the Ubeni reserve, thus confirming for Biggles that the Steiners were indeed operating there. Tommy took Biggles and Ginger directly to the location of his abandoned ox wagon. Most of the contents and trade goods in the wagon had been robbed but Tommy showed Biggles a secret compartment which had not been touched. In it, Biggles found the blue box which turned out to contain a quantity of uncut diamonds. Leaving Tommy to stand guard over the wagon, Biggles next made his way to the native village and discovered that Angus was not in fact dead, but had been kidnapped and imprisoned by the natives. The Steiners had been trading for raw diamonds with the natives, offering them gin and tobacco in return. The tribal chief had taken Angus prisonner to prevent him from reporting to the authorities. Biggles freed Angus and flew him and Tommy to Egypt where Angus received medical treatment and was soon able to resume his trading activities with Tommy. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters